CNN’s POLITICAL GUT CHECK | for July 7, 2014 | 5 p.m.
— n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle

COCHRAN CHALLENGER BUILDING EVIDENCE TOWARDS LEGAL ACTION AGAINST MISSISSIPPI GOP RUNOFF RESULTS:The campaign of the tea party-backed challenger who narrowly lost a Republican primary runoff in Mississippi to longtime Sen. Thad Cochran said it's building the evidence needed to legally contest those results. "The evidence we have found so far, which will in part serve as the basis for a challenge, is promising," Noel Fritsch, spokesman for state Sen. Chris McDaniel, told CNN Monday. Fritsch spoke to CNN as attorneys for the campaign told reporters at a news conference at the Hinds County courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi that they will go through ballot boxes, including absentees, before taking legal action.

(CNN) - The campaign of the tea party-backed challenger who narrowly lost a Republican primary runoff in Mississippi to longtime Sen. Thad Cochran said it's building the evidence needed to legally contest those results.

"The evidence we have found so far, which will in part serve as the basis for a challenge, is promising," Noel Fritsch, spokesman for state Sen. Chris McDaniel, told CNN Monday. Fritsch spoke to CNN as attorneys for the campaign told reporters at a news conference at the Hinds County courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi that they will go through ballot boxes, including absentees, before taking legal action.

(CNN) - President Barack Obama continued in his theme of a "year of action" Monday, as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan unveiled a new effort to ensure access to "effective educators" for all American children.

Duncan joined the President at the White House for a lunch with a group of teachers chosen for their expertise with high-need, high-poverty schools.

(CNN) - Hillary Clinton pushed back at ongoing criticism of her providing legal defense decades ago to an accused rapist, explaining that she had asked not to be assigned to the case but ultimately had a responsibility to represent her client.

In 1975, Clinton, a 27-year-old attorney, was appointed by a judge to represent Thomas Alfred Taylor, a 41-year-old man accused of raping a young girl, for free while working at the legal aid clinic at the University of Arkansas.

(CNN) - Sen. Pat Roberts' primary challenger is going up with a radio commercial that highlights what appeared to be a gaffe by the longtime Republican senator from Kansas in the controversy over his residency.

The radio spot by Milton Wolf comes as the Roberts campaign announced it's going to start re-airing a television commercial that highlighted the controversy involving old Facebook postings from the conservative challenger that included some "insensitive" comments.

(CNN) - With four months to go until the midterm elections, the Democratic senator in a crucial contest that could decide the balance of power in the Senate, has just over $5 million in her campaign warchest.

Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire's re-election campaign announced Monday that it had $5.1 million cash on hand. And they reported that the senator raised more than $2.8 million the past three months, bringing to more than $10 million she's brought in this cycle. The campaign said Shaheen received donations from more than 31,000 contributors, up nearly 5,000 from the first three months of the year.